The Sweetest Girl
by Shortstakk7932
Summary: Popped in my head at an obscene hour while jamming to Pandora. Will eventually be Morgan/Garcia, bear with me. M rated to be safe instead of sorry. Derek goes home to visit his family for Christmas and during a walk around the old neighborhood he runs into a familiar face.
1. Chapter 1

**The Sweetest Girl**

**This was actually a little something that popped into my head at like 3 AM. Was listening to Pandora actually….and the Wyclef Jean song 'Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)' was on, as well as T.I.'s 'Dead & Gone'…and *POOF*. As usual, I own nothing CM related…just borrowing. And also, just like any other time, read/review…lemme know what you think…positive or negative…won't know what I need to work on to be better at this if ya don't let me know. **

Winter in Chicago was insane. Being the 'Windy City' was bad enough on a normal day; but then you dump an ass load of snow on everything and drop the temperature down around 15 degrees for the daily high….just no.

Derek was back for Christmas. It seemed as though he'd gotten his travelling in at just the right time; the day after he left Quantico, flights were getting grounded because of inclement weather. He had told his mom that he was going for a walk around town. He'd likely stop by the Barfield house and check on James and his family. He would stop by the youth center and see how everyone was doing there….just in general hitting a few old stomping grounds.

As he walked down the street in front of his old high school, he looked across the street at the park where he and some of the neighborhood kids used to play or hang out. The old play-ground equipment from the late 70's and early 80's had of course been replaced; but the park itself was basically the same, they even still had that same old oak tree with the picnic table and grill close by where his family would set up for family cookouts when he was a kid, back before his dad died. Matter of fact, if Derek squinted just right he could almost see his dad out there with his grilling tools and that silly apron he always wore that Fran had gotten for his birthday years ago.

As he looked over 'his' park he saw a scantily dressed young woman arguing with a much larger man; Derek rolled his eyes for just a second. Hookers had taken to using this park in the off season to pick up men; this was likely just a dispute between one of the girls and her pimp.

She had to be freezing; her dress was short, tight, and red. The only thing that she had on that might give her any warmth at all was some raggedy black coat; it was long, hanging almost to her ankles, but it wasn't styled for this weather…it was more like something you would wear during the spring or fall, not in the dead of winter.

Morgan was going to let it go and not even stick his nose into it until he saw the man back hand the woman, sending her stumbling a bit, and eventually falling onto her hands and knees in the snow. At that Derek couldn't stand it anymore; that man was no less than 6'4. That little woman had to be an entire foot shorter than the man; she had to crane her neck to have any chance to look him in the eyes at all. From the distance that Morgan had originally been watching from he could tell that the woman was barely tall enough for her head to rise above the man's elbow. She still hadn't gotten back on her feet; she must have been sort of stunned a bit.

Running quickly over before the man was able to get very far away, Derek just jumped on him and threw a few hard punches; he landed one to the man's left eye…knowing that when it was said and done the eye was going to swell shut, it would be days before the man was able to see out of it again.

"If you wanted your turn at her all you had to do was say so. Because I like your audacity, I'll let you have her at half the going rate…." That was all the son of a bitch was able to say. Derek picked him up off of the ground and threw him towards the street, threatening him to go to hell. Without a second thought to the guy or where he had gone, Derek turned to help the woman stand.

"Ma'am are you alright?"

Dusting some of the snow off of her clothes as much as she could, she began mumbling that she was just fine. But Derek could hear her teeth chattering as she spoke.

Taking her hand and realizing she must have been nearly frozen to the bone, 'Come on, let me at least buy you a coffee."

"Fine." The woman shook her head, resigned that she wasn't going to be able to get out of this. "Can we at least go to the coffee shop on 12th? It's farther away from…" she suddenly looked up at the man who had helped her and her voice stopped, she seemed to forget the rest of her sentence.

"_Jasmine_?" Derek couldn't believe his eyes. From the distance he had been at previously he hadn't been able to recognize the woman; but now he was able to see her clearly. He had gone to school with this girl. He had been two years ahead of her, but he knew of her. She had always had a long mane of thick brown hair that seemed to hang in large curls; large brown eyes, the most expressive that he'd ever seen, and alabaster skin with rosy pink lips. She had damn near glowed back then.

But she was from the rough side of the tracks, even for his neighborhood. Her mom was hook on whatever drugs she could get her hands on, her step-father…well you could find him quite easily by hunting through the sex-offender registry. Kids at school gave her hell. Derek never went out of his way to pick on her; but somehow, right now, he felt like he had treated her worse yet. He had been indifferent towards her…he had never lifted a finger to do anything nice for her. Maybe he never picked on her, but he sure never helped her either. He had that momentary thought of how would her life had changed if just one person in all those years had done one nice thing for her. If anybody in that school had bothered to help her up when she got pushed down the stairs…or had ever stopped to tell her that she had pretty eyes or that she was attractive at all when she had someone throwing mud at her and picking on her for her ratty clothes. Would she still be in this cold ass park, trying to stand up in two feet of snow dressed in this ridiculous outfit freezing to death? Or would she have been able to find some other way in this world?

"It's farther away from what?"

"Actually, I have to go. I have appointments….." she began to try to scoot away. Derek merely closed his hand around her wrist tighter.

She looked back at him as though she expected him to turn on her, too.

"Come on, it's just coffee. How bad can it be?" He didn't miss the fact that she was looking in the general direction that the other man had gone in as if she was worried he'd jump out of the wood work and come after her again. "Look, as long as you're with me, you don't have to worry about him."

"That's awesome. But eventually you will go home, and it will be a Tuesday. What then?"

"Well at least you can get warm for a little bit and thaw out."

"Alright…."

"At the place on 12th like you said though."

While they were at the coffee shop, Derek actually ordered them a couple of sandwiches to nibble on while they sat and had their coffees, he was trying to give her as much time to relax and get warm as possible. She looked like life had kicked the shit out of her. When she started coughing, he could hear a rattling in her chest and became concerned. They had done so much talking about him…she kept asking him a ton of questions and wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. So he had spent the better part of an hour just answering all of her questions….then he heard her coughing.

"Are you alright Jasmine?"

"Yeah…" She saw the way he was looking at her, and decided to tell the truth. "I'm not well."

He took her hand in his, it was so small; her fingers were about half the size of his…and they were still slightly cold to the touch.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just a little bronchitis….maybe a touch of pneumonia….I'm not sure."

"You haven't been to the doctor?"

"Yeah, 'cause Johnny gives a shit." She kept checking her phone.

"What are you waiting for?"

"I was checking to see if the girl I have watching my baby was going to call me anytime soon. I owe her a little money."

"Boy or girl?"

Jasmine smiled, 'Boy. I named him Michael. I'm only moderately sure of who his father is, so I didn't have to worry about naming him after whoever that is. He's cute as hell though. He's never sad; he giggles and is happy from the time he wakes up until he has to go to bed. I always dream about having the money to get him away from this life, so he doesn't have to grow up like Johnny or even me. But we all have dreams right….You wanna see a picture of him, hang on." Jasmine grabbed her phone again and thumbed through the pictures she had stored on it, looking for a good one of the little boy. "Ooh! Here…."

She shoved her phone over to Derek. Michael was an adorable little boy; big blue eyes and dark hair…dimples. In the picture he was sitting on Jasmine's lap, grabbing for his little sock feet…it looked like he was laughing as hard as he could when the picture was taken.

"How old is he?"

"Six months…"

"Whatever happened Jasmine?"

"What do you mean?"

"After school…what happened?"

"Momma died of an overdose when I was about 19, I think. That wasn't too much of a loss. I mean, a part of me will always love her. She was the woman that brought me into this world. But that was about where her mothering instinct stopped. Even when she was home, she was never actually 'there', she was always high as a kite, tweaking, whatever. She didn't have time to care about me. And Bruce…he got thrown in the slammer a few times over the years for the usual offenses. He never does much time; with a wink and a smile he's out in a few months…if you're lucky, he stays behind bars for a couple years….but as far as Bruce goes, there's a revolving door on the jail and there's no lock. He's a slippery bastard for sure."

"How did you wind up doing _this_?"

"What did you expect Morgan? I'd become a doctor or a ballerina like all of the other girls? Hardly. There's only so many times life can beat you down before you stop getting back up. There was a time in my life I had thought about wanting more. But there was always someone there with a friendly shove….I was just lucky to make it out of high school with all of my teeth and ribs intact.

When we got out of school, I tried cleaning up my act. I got a little dinky job; it was enough to keep me fed. Then Johnny crossed my path. We went out on a few dates, he seemed nice. Then, somehow….it morphed into him trading me to his friends for money or whatever he wanted; it snowballed from there. Now I can't get away from him. I've tried reaching out for help before. Nobody cares. I'm just another sad story…a statistic. I'm just a prostitute and people in your world don't care about people in my world unless we're part of a case file."

"You could come back home with me, to Quantico…."

"No, it wouldn't do any good. Johnny would follow me."

"We can get him arrested…."

"Look I have to go. If I don't go pretty soon….it'll get worse if I don't go back out there."

"Come on, at least think about it."

"Why are you so concerned by what happens to me?"

"Because, I never did a damned thing to help you back then…somehow that's worse than if I had been one of the ones to pick on you."

"You helped me today. That's enough. It shows that you have changed and that there's hope for the rest. Now really, I have to go."

"Look, at least take my card. If you find yourself in trouble, you can call me and I will do what I have to do to help you."

"Alright.' She looked down and smiled as she filed the card away in her bag. "Thanks for the lunch Derek, you're one of the good people." She stood and walked over to him. Leaning over she kissed him on the forehead, just above his brow line, and rubbed her hand over his bald head…

"For good luck,' she joked as she walked out of the door to the coffee shop and back out into the cold Chicago winter.

Derek was left there contemplating all the things that she had said, all the things he had learned. She seemed so sad when she left, like she didn't really want to go. The walk back to his mother's house was somber for him. When he got in the door, Fran Morgan could tell that something was weighing on her son's mind heavily. After some slight prodding on her part, Derek told her the entire story of bumping into the sweetest girl he'd ever known.

**Ok. So that's that. I know there will be at least one more chapter. I haven't decided exactly how long to make this story….but as I have said this one just popped into my head for no good reason. Please lemme know what you think. Smooches….**


	2. Chapter 2

**The Sweetest Girl 2**

**She used to be the sweetest girl ever, ever  
Now she like sour amaretto  
She wears a dress to the T like the letter  
And if you make it rain she will be under the weather  
She used to run track back in high school  
Now she tricks on the track right by school  
She takes a loss cos she don't wanna see her child lose  
So respect her, or pay up for the time used  
And then she runs to the pastor  
And he tells her there will be a new chapter  
But she feels no different after  
And then she asks him... where my money at?**

**(Sweetest Girl 'Dollar Bill', Wyclef)**

Jasmine stepped off of the bus, looking around the terminal; she had enough money to get dinner and a taxi ride to the address on the card in her bag…she thought. She wasn't sure what the mileage rates were on a taxi around here. She clutched the baby carrier tightly, bringing it up closer to her so she could check on her son quickly; he was still sleeping. Michael did that a lot; almost as soon as he got into a car or anything going for a ride, he instantly fell asleep. She walked into the terminal and asked an attendant where was a good place to get something decent to eat; the woman told her about a little café just up the road, within walking distance. With a kind smile from the woman that was doting on little Michael, Jasmine made her way back out to the sidewalk and began to make her way to the mentioned café.

Jasmine had been surprised when she started putting together her plan to escape Johnny and Chicago altogether. She had been stashing money back, a few dollars at a time, hiding it in some of Michael's things…his diaper bag…she kept a small bag of money taped under the bottom of the diaper pail (that never got moved, so it never got looked under…once the bag started getting too much in it, she would take it out and hide some of it in the diaper bag with the other money). It was never much, just a few dollars. And then when she would hang out with Micah, her friend that would take care of Michael when she was working surprised her.

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**Flashback**

_Micah had been socking back some of the money that Jasmine had been paying her for her babysitting services; some of the money that she hadn't saved, she had used to go shopping to buy Jasmine two new outfits. The day that Jasmine came to her to tell her that it was the day she would be leaving, Micah walked to the closet and pulled out a small travel bag. She set it on the kitchen table and opened it; it had the two new outfits for Jasmine, and a few spare diapers for Michael as well as some little snacks for him. And if that wasn't enough, next Micah walked over to the kitchen counter and opened up what should have been a flour container. She pulled out a bag of money that she had hidden in there just for Jasmine; there was $300 there. _

_Jasmine started crying. She never expected this, and it was hard to believe that anyone wanted to help her. _

"_Don't cry girlfriend; why do you think I was always on you about paying me on time? I was trying to make sure I had enough in case this day ever came. Go take a shower and change into one of the new outfits….I wanna see at least one of them on you before you go. I'll feed lil man here, and we'll watch some cartoons til you're ready to go."_

_All Jasmine could do was nod and take a stack of some clothes with her. _

_It had been so long since she had a relaxing hot shower and not have to worry about what would happen with Johnny. He knew she was with Micah, they were supposed to be going to the grocery store and running a few other errands while they were out, so he didn't expect her home anytime soon. She washed her hair with Micah's coconut shampoo and conditioner. Fifteen minutes later, Jasmine was squeaky clean and smelled like a day at the beach….she felt happier already. She dried off carefully and put on some lightly scented lotion that Micah was letting her borrow and just didn't know it. Then she turned to her new clothes. _

_A new underwear set, that had polka-dots of all colors with a white background; the underwear was boy-cut, and the bra had her puppies standing at attention. _

'_Nice.'_

_And there was a pair of dark wash jeans that flared a bit around the ankles, boot-cuts, it seemed. The blouse was slightly larger than Jasmine needed, but it was comfortable, and it was a lovely shade of green. And a tank top to go under it. Micah had pitched in a few dollars of her own money and got a cute pair of black boots for Jasmine to wear. _

_With her new gear she would look like a normal woman and not a prostitute. Would she even know how to behave as a normal person in society?_

**End Flashback**

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Jasmine entered the diner and went to the counter to make her order; a hot pastrami on Rye bread, French fries, a sweet tea. Micah had gotten her turned on to sweet tea; she had it before, but usually preferred drinking water. Sweet tea was Micah's water. Jasmine chuckled quietly to herself as she thought of her friend. According to Micah, on the sixth day God created sweet tea….then on the seventh he sat back and had a glass.

Jasmine picked a corner booth. She sat the baby carrier down first, scooting it far enough into the booth so she'd have room to sit next to it. Next, Jasmine picked Michael up out of the carrier, seeing as he had finally decided to wake up, although quite begrudgingly; the only thing that ever woke the baby up after dozing that much was the smell of food. Jasmine laughed a little as she saw Michael's face light up when he spotted her French fries.

"Just a few you little mooch. Junk food isn't good for babies; it's not even that good for adults." Jasmine got the little man situated on her lap just in time for him to reach for a chubby fist full of mashed French fries, letting out a baby giggle as he did so, kicking his legs in excitement the whole time, his dimples showing themselves as usual.

As she ate from her sandwich, Jasmine also managed to get little Michael to eat a few bites of lettuce to wash down his fries with, as well as a few nibbles of the deli meat from the sandwich. Grabbing her glass of tea she sucked some of the drink into the straw, capping it with her index finger, trapping the tea in the straw…with that done she gave the other end of the straw to Michael so he could try some of the tea.

After he drank from his mother's straw, he bounced and burbled that much more.

"It's good, huh. Seems like we will have to keep this place in mind and come back sometime." The next thing Jasmine knew was Michael had dropped a fist full of mangled fries onto the table and began trying to reach for her glass.

"Fabulous, I've created a monster. Baby, it's time you had a bottle…too much sugar like this isn't good for your little tummy."

Like any child his size, Michael began to grumble a little at not being allowed more of the tea.

"None of that now, I have a bottle of some orange juice for you….and some of your favorite little snacks. Here ya go."

She settled her little man back into his carrier and gave him his bottle which he took from her with gusto….Michael sure loved his juice. He was being silly and trying to hold the bottle with his feet as he reached out for Jasmine's hair as she leaned over to make goo-goo noises at him, causing her to laugh as much as he was. After giving him a few bits of his snack, waiting until he started turning his nose up at them to signal he was finished, Jasmine packed up the little bit of gear she had with her and made her way out to another shelter that was along the bus route. They had come as far as D.C; but she had one more bus to take to get into Quantico.

Jasmine placed Michael's little carrier between her feet where she could rock it while she waited and relax as she contemplated her next move. What was she supposed to do? Could she really just walk up to the FBI headquarters and ask to speak with Derek? Would he still be willing to help her? She'd felt a sort of weariness all day. She had started her morning off by looking over her shoulder after Micah dropped her off at the first bus terminal….after Micah left, she got this sick feeling in her stomach like trouble wasn't far away.

As she sat deep in thought, concentrating so hard on what she would do now that she had made it this far, Jasmine never saw the gun sticking out of the window of the SUV across the street….she didn't have time to figure out what that loud popping noise was before she heard Michael screaming.

It wasn't until she looked down to see why her baby was crying and screaming like his life depended on it that she saw all the blood that was soaking the white tank top she had on. She stood to try to pick up the carrier her son was in and try to get help, but before she could she collapsed. Everything had started going dark.

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**Post AN: Dun, dun, dun! I'll be back sometime soon with an update to let you know if she lives or dies and what happens to baby Michael, etc. Eventually we will get around to how Jasmine came upon naming Michael. **


	3. Chapter 3

**The Sweetest Girl Chapter 3 **

Derek Morgan was on the FBI's jet with the rest of the team coming back from one horrible case from Oregon….some guy was killing women and their babies…sometimes the children were as old as three, but usually they were still infants. It took them nearly two weeks to catch the maniac. Everyone was tired of Oregon for a while so they had finished whatever paperwork had awaited them at the local PD, and then headed for the plane. Nobody wanted to stay the night bad enough.

Morgan had no more than just shut his eyes, his headphones on listening to a mix on his ipod that Garcia had made up for him, when his phone vibrated; he had set it to vibrate so if it did ring the sound wouldn't disturb anyone else that might be asleep. Morgan grabbed the phone from clip on his belt, fully expecting the vibration to have been caused by a text from Pen. When he checked the ID on the screen the number calling wasn't familiar to him, although he knew it was a number local to Quantico.

"Derek Morgan,' he answered carefully.

"Is this Agent Derek Morgan?' a lady's voice asked nervously.

"Yes ma'am. Who am I speaking to?"

"I am Nurse Watkins from Potomac General Hospital. About an hour ago a young woman was brought in as a gunshot victim. She had a business card with your name on it. We looked for any other emergency numbers that she might have had in her bag, but we couldn't find anything….Yours was the only number she had with her."

"Did she come in with a small child?"

"Yes sir, as a matter of fact she did. The baby is being cared for in the pediatric department as w…"

"What was the girl's name?"

"Jasmine Stewart…."

"One moment, ma'am.' Derek raced over to where Hotch was lounging, shaking him to wake him up.

"What is it Morgan?" Hotch asked tiredly.

"How soon before we land?" Hotch began to notice the slight notes of worry in Derek's demeanor.

"Is Garcia alright?"

"Why wouldn't she be? Yes she's fine. Hotch. How long?"

"Maybe three more hours. Why?"

Without even answering Hotch, Derek turned back to his phone where he had kept the nurse waiting.

"Ma'am, I am currently several thousands of feet in the air on our plane. I won't be landing for approximately three more hours. What can you tell me about Jasmine's condition currently?"

"I shouldn't really; we're trying to find next of kin…."

"Ma'am, she has no next of kin. Her mother died years ago. And she never knew who her biological father was. The only family she has left is that baby that came with her. Now, what is going on?"

"Well since she had your card with her…..alright. All I know for sure is that she was brought in about an hour ago. She had a gunshot to the abdominal region; there was a lot of blood. The baby was screaming, but it seemed as though he was physically unharmed. Currently the young lady is in surgery to remove the bullet and stop the bleeding. I'm not sure how long the surgery will take; I suppose it will have a lot to do with how severe her injury was and how well the doctor can repair the damage."

"And you said the baby was physically unharmed?"

"Yes sir. I think he was just in some shock, I'm sure he was. We don't happen to know the baby's name however. When your friend was brought in, she was already unconscious."

"His name is Michael; that's all I know for sure….I don't know his middle name if he has one. How is he now?"

"The last time I checked on him, he had calmed considerably. He was still a little frantic, but that doesn't surprise me. He's been fed, and changed…so his tummy is full and he's got some clean clothes. But he doesn't have anyone he knows to care for him in the absence of his mother….the pediatric nurses are doing their best, but it's not the same."

Derek could only nod in agreement with that statement although, he knew the nurse couldn't see that.

"Ma'am, I will back into town just as soon as we set this plane on the ground. I want someone to keep me posted if anything changes before then. In the meantime, I am going to arrange for one of my colleagues to go meet with you there at the hospital. Whatever information that you would share with me is safe to share with her."

"Yes sir, of course. And, please be safe."

Derek disconnected the call and then he called Penelope.

"My love? I thought that my team of superheroes was already on the way home."

"We are Baby Girl. I need you to do a favor for me, as soon as possible."

"Name it."

"I need you to get out to Potomac General; look up a Nurse Watkins in the Emergency Department…"

"What happened?"

"A…friend of mine from back in Chicago was admitted there. She has no family except for a one year old son, and he's being looked after in the Pediatric ward for now."

"_She_?"

"It's a girl that I used to know from high school. When I was back home for Christmas, I ran into her, and she has been having some hard times. I had lunch with her so I could find out more. I gave her my card and told her if she was ever able to make it this far I would help her."

"Alright, my darling. I will call Kevin and have him cover for me until further notice. He sort of owes me a favor anyway." Even though Derek couldn't see it, Penelope was brushing her fingernails on her blouse and checking them, as if it was all in a day's work. Derek smiled thinking about what favor she could possibly hold over Kevin's head now. She broke up with Kevin back before Thanksgiving; shortly thereafter Derek had finally manned the hell up and asked her out.

"Thanks Baby Girl. I know it's gotta be weird, so thank you for not making a big deal out of it."

"Oh, I'm grilling you when you get back home….I'm not done with you yet. But this is not a conversation that can be had over the phone….and we should have the option of it being private if needs be."

"Anything you say baby. I'm going to hop off of here and try to get some shut-eye; I have a feeling that I won't be getting much of it later."

"Very well my love. And please be careful."

"Always."

Derek ended the call and began immediately thinking about who could have done this to Jasmine. Only one person really came to mind….Johnny. Next, his mind drifted to the payback that he would visit on the man once he got his hands on him. Visions of just how he would rip Johnny's arms off of him, like the wings off of a fly, were what lulled Derek to sleep.

Hotch had watch Derek ever since he had asked how long it would be before they landed. Something was going on. Hotch was trying not to eaves drop on Derek's conversation with Garcia, but he couldn't help but catch something about a friend of his from Chicago being at Potomac General. _Why would a friend of his from Chicago be in a hospital in Quantico?_ Hotch began to run through various scenarios to try to figure out the most plausible explanation. Finally he gave up and decided he could use the spare time to get a little extra rest himself.

Rossi had kept his eyes on both men. He saw how distressed Morgan was, and he also watched as Hotch kept himself in character trying to put pieces of the puzzle together; Hotch wasn't fooling anybody. Rossi had also caught part of the conversation. As soon as they landed he was going to look up this _Jasmine Stewart_. Since she was apparently a friend of Derek's, she was likely a decent person; but something just didn't sit right with him. After getting some of his own thoughts in order, Rossi dozed off for the remainder of the flight.

**Post AN: So now papa Rossi is about to start snooping again. Hints of Garcia/Morgan maybe….if your good girls….LMAO. Another sort of sleepy chapter, but sometimes they are necessary evils. Hopefully things will pick up soon. We shall see.**


End file.
